Universal basic income or social security

What we need is a blueprint for universal health care and pensions to help the vulnerable section

Recently a seminar organised by the Institute for Human Development in Delhi discussed the proposals for a Universal Basic Income (UBI) put forward by Pranab Bardhan and Vijay Joshi, whose presence at the seminar added greatly to a better understanding of their ideas. The seminar also had sessions on the treatment of this topic in this year’s Economic Survey and field-level concerns.

The dissatisfaction with the misdirection of subsidies in social welfare schemes and the high-level of “demerit” subsidies that go to better-off sections of the population figured prominently in the discussion. What Mr Joshi called “deep fiscal adjustment” was